Jefferson County lawyers seek to pause and appeal a judge's ruling that found racial gerrymandering in the county commission district maps.
a sweeping ruling from a federal judge that ordered new commission district maps.The county wants Haikala to rule on its requests by next Wednesday. Otherwise, they will make the same request for a stay – and an appeal – to the Eleventh Circuit Court based in Atlanta.
In her 139-page ruling Tuesday, Haikala concluded that county leaders failed to show that race was not the major factor in creating its county commission district lines, which is a constitutional violation. The county continues to dispute the notion that race was the predominant factor in drawing the last district maps in 2021. “As for what occurred during the 2021 redistricting process, there was only one express reference to the racial demographics of only one district – and coming only after the whole commission voted to adopt the enacted plan,” lawyers wrote. “That is too thin a reed to rest a finding of racial gerrymandering.”A coalition of plaintiffs in the McClure v. Jefferson County Commission case argued that the Jefferson County Commission’s current five-district mapCurrently, the five county commission districts are solidly partisan and largely divided by race, with three White, Republican members and two Black, Democratic commissioners. While the Jefferson County Commission remains majority White and Republican, Jefferson County voters lean Democratic and have elected Black Democrats to county-wide seats, including sheriff and district attorney. could shift political power in Alabama’s largest county by flipping its commission from majority Republican to Democrat. “We will continue to fight to make sure that the Commission’s new map is fairly drawn,” said Kathryn Sadasivan, assistant counsel with Legal Defense Fund in a release about the ruling this week. “A nondiscriminatory redistricting process should be a given and not a far-off dream.”Lawyers for Jefferson County on Thursday restated arguments that discussion of politics when drawing lines, is allowed and is not necessarily race-specific. “In sum, plaintiffs failed to untangle race from these non-racial explanations for district lines, meaning they failed to rule out the possibility that some non-racial factor drove the districting process,” the county’s attorneys wrote. Also, the county argues that the case has come too late and would deliver harm to the county if new lines were imposed. “Plantiffs never explained why they waited so long to sue,” lawyers wrote. “And yet, but for that delay, the parties could have tried this case and appealed it well before the 2026 elections.”While lawyers for the plaintiffs have said there is enough time to draw new maps, a declaration filed in the court by the county registrar illustrates a more complex set of issues that must be addressed within a short deadline to comply with the current federal ruling. In his declaration, Barry Stephenson, Jefferson County’s longtime chairman of the board of registrars, noted that the next election is May 19 and candidates must have established district residency by Nov. 3, 2025. “Any changes to the enacted plan ordered by this court would have to be finalized well before Nov. 2, 2025, so that candidates are able to move into districts they desire to represent before the one-year residency requirement commences,” Stephenson wrote to the court Thursday. Stephenson named Oct. 20, 2025 as the deadline needed to finalize maps to prepare for the next election. “Anything beyond that Oct. 20 deadline would not afford the county sufficient time to fix any errors in the remedial plan, such as unintended precinct splits, and notify voters and candidates ahead of the date candidates must move to their desired districts and begin candidate qualifying,” Stephenson wrote.Runoff candidates in this Alabama city decline debates: It’s a ‘strategy’Birmingham Democrat seeks to beat the odds in run for secretary of stateIf you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our
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